New Forest Winter Shoot

December 30, 2018

It was back in January 2017 that I first met Carrie Lavers, a talented photographer new to the area. Stephanie of The Lifestyle Editor had put me in touch with Carrie and mentioned her style of photography would be perfect for my flowers and she wasn’t wrong! Carrie first did some shots of my flowers when I had the large barn in Ampfield – and they are some of my favourite ever images to date. After that first meeting and me being totally smitten with Carrie’s work – we thought it would be a good idea to do an informal shoot together. With the New Forest on our doorstep it seemed right to venture out into the Winter bracken and see what we could put together.

On the day of the shoot we were hit by Storm Doris & gale force winds, but being optimistic creative folks we decided to give it a go anyway as the thought of the added atmosphere to the images was a chance too good to miss. Katie – a friends god-daughter came to model for us and luckily wasn’t put off by the weather . I used lots of Spring flowers in the designs – gorgeous chocolate and burgundy ranunculus, anemones, dusky toned hellebores, nude ‘Menta’ roses, narcissi and lemon scented waxflower. We created a free-standing archway which was tricky to keep upright in 80mph gusts, but we managed it and Carrie did indeed capture the added atmosphere and drama – I love the softness and innocence portrayed in the images which contrasts the moodiness and atmosphere . The copper bracken made the perfect backdrop for this shoot and the colours almost give it an Edwardian feel. Thanks to Carrie and Katie for braving the outdoors with me! See if you can spot a local native wandering into shot 🙂